Over the past several years, the amount of personal information that individuals share online has increased dramatically. Many websites provide an online community that provides content focusing on a common interest or theme (e.g., a “fan site” for a television program or musical artist), and allows people to join the online community and share personal information with other members of the online community.
Online social networking sites have also been rapidly gaining in popularity. Typically, members of an online social network communicate with one another and meet other members based on personal information captured in the other member profiles.
Also, members of online social networks often request their existing friends to join, creating a web of online relationships that mirror offline ones. Operators of online social networking sites typically require that new members provide certain personal information to join, including contact information (e.g., physical and email addresses, telephone numbers, instant messaging nicknames, etc.) and identifying information (e.g. a name, location, personal interests, age, etc.).
A positive consequence of this general trend is the greater ability for groups of friends, families and other acquaintances to communicate online with, and about, each other as members of a social network. For example, a group of friends may share personal information with each other about common interests, individual personal attributes, events, schedules and activity plans and may also access each others' personal information. Another benefit of online social networks is that members can more easily find others who share common interests, goals, lifestyles, etc., without being limited to an online community dedicated to a particular interest. Doing so allows members to expand their social networks.
Many people, however, are reluctant to provide personal information to an online social network. The reasons for this reluctance are varied. Some have experienced undesired communications when submitting personal information online. For example, automated agents may be configured to scour the information available from an online social networking site to harvest email addresses and later send unsolicited email to the harvested addresses, or some members may be deluged by unwanted messages from strangers. Parents are often concerned about allowing their children to provide personal information to an online source out of the fear that it may be subsequently misused by strangers.